Report: Kroenke will transfer NHL, NBA teams to a family member

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on April 13, 2010, 9:47 PM EDT

In a Tuesday morning appearance on KFNS in St. Louis, I prefaced all comments regarding the ability of Stan Kroenke to purchase the 60 percent of the Rams that he doesn’t currently own by pointing out the reality that really, really rich guys didn’t acquire that financial condition via accident or stupidity. Kroenke wouldn’t be making the move to match the offer made by Shahid Khan unless Kroenke had a plan for dealing with the league’s cross-ownership rules, as applied to the NBA and NHL teams Kroenke owns in Denver.

According to FOX 2 in St. Louis, Kroenke is prepared to transfer ownership of the Colorado Avalanche and the Denver Nuggets to another member of his family.

It’s unclear whether the league would permit the rule to be circumvented so easily. So we’ve asked the question, and if/when we get an answer we’ll pass it along.

The league shouldn’t have anything to permit. The rules say he can’t own teams in different playing markets, it doesn’t say who he can or can’t transfer ownership to. I can understand the rule, but don’t really agree with it.

Hey Esquire, while don’t you fill me in on this. Does the NFL rule prohibit the spouse of an NFL owner from owning teams of other leagues in competing cities? I assume that the league wouldn’t allow its rule to be so easily circumvented.
If he transfers the teams to someone other than his wife, wouldn’t he be subject to a major gift tax?
Also, when it comes to income from the transferred teams, wouldn’t it be taxable to the new owners (you know, Lucas v. Earl, fruit of the tree style)? And then any transfer of the income back to Kroenke will be treated as a taxable gift made by the new owners?

If it is Kroenke’s wife he’s transferring ownership to, she is worth more than him herself. It is her own money (well heiress money), they report separately. He is worth 2.7 billion or something ridiculous and she is worth another 2.9 billion by herself!
I don’t imagine the NFL can do anything against this. She has separate finances…

Come on. Like the NFL is going to block the move of a billionaire. This is exactly like when Bud Selig transferred ownership of the Brewers to his daughter and became Commissioner. They will let him get away with it for sure.

I don’t know why people think Pat Bowlen cares so much. Yeah, I get it, the NBA and NHL are competitors to the NFL… sort of. But they are peanuts compared to the NFL.
Plus I would be shocked if Bowlen flipped on ESPN (we know he’s too high class to visit this site) and learned about Kroenke’s decision. I’m sure this was all discussed before it was announced, at least to some extent. It’s not like Kroenke has no relationship with the other owners. He has owned a 40% chunk of the Rams for a long time now.

Look, I know that everyone (stupidly? xenophobic-ly?) loves to hate soccer, but Kroenke does own an additional team. The Colorado Rapids of the MLS. I have no idea if the MLS teams falls under the same rules in the eyes of the NFL, mainly because every report that I’ve seen on the issue neglects to mention they exist.
In addition, Kroenke owns 29.98% of EPL team, Arsenal. At 30%, he has to submit an offer for the rest of the shares. 15% of Arsenal not owned by Kroenke is for sale. I assume that since the Glazers own Manchester United and the Bucs that this isn’t an issue. But it seems worth mentioning.

Don’t you morons realize who his “family members” are? OTHER billionaires. Yeah, that’s right, his wife is Anne Walton, one of Sam Walton’s kids, which means that when he says “transfer ownership”, he means SELL it to them, not GIVE it to them. They can ALL afford to buy the teams from him outright. Therefore, no tax issues, no nothing. Problem solved.

Edward DeBartolo Sr. bought the 49ers and gave it to his son to run. But it was really his team and he controlled it through the DeBartolo Corporation.
At the same time he owned the Penguins which was run by his daughter, Denise. They won two Stanley Cups while she was “owner”.
He also owned and ran three race tracks. Eddie Jr ran those into the ground and they were then moved to his son-in-law, John York, who got them running well again.